It is part of the tradition and fun of Halloween to display jack-o-lanterns. Commonly and probably originally, such were made by cleaning out the soft pulp of a pumpkin, carving side openings representing at least eyes, nose and mouth, and placing inside the hollow pumpkin a burning candle to illuminate these openings and the pumpkin head. A similar tradition exists with snowmen, wherein a face is often made--perhaps originally using lumps of coal as the facial elements. In more modern times, "snowmen" are often made of styrofoam or other artificial material, and kits of decorative elements are provided as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,841,019; 4,322,004; and Des. 267,210.
A jack-o-lantern made out of artificial material is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 396,252. Artificial pumpkin jack-o-lanterns are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 848,938 and 2,428,133. These latter have pumpkin face electric lights to replace the candles of older jack-o-lanterns. Doll or cartoon heads or skulls have been made with individual permanently affixed facial elements such as eyes or teeth with permanent means for electrically lighting them.
It is also known to provide replaceable facial elements into head-like structures such as the Mr. Potato-Head.TM. toy kits and as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,019,516; 3,210,884; and 3,452,473.
While artificial pumpkin jack-o-lanterns such as the aforementioned U.S. Pat. Nos. 848,938 and 2,428,133 patents are convenient, they do not allow for the individual expression of carving a natural pumpkin. Yet, carving natural pumpkins is a messy process involving the inconvenience of cleaning out the pumpkin seeds and soft pulp and, while allowing for individualizing of the face, allows little margin for error or changing of the position of carved features after made. If a child places the mouth at a "wrong" place, he or she cannot change its position. There thus exists a need for a device and kit which allows a natural pumpkin to be used without cleaning it and yet produces a similar effect to a carved and interior lighted pumpkin jack-o-lantern. There also exists a need for such an improvement which allows the rearrangement of facial elements.